


look now, the sky is gold

by grapefruity



Series: peraltiago, tumblr style [2]
Category: Brooklyn Nine-Nine (TV)
Genre: F/M, it's a baby fic guys, the pregnancy to birthing part of baby that is
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-03
Updated: 2016-10-03
Packaged: 2018-08-19 08:04:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,247
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8196985
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/grapefruity/pseuds/grapefruity
Summary: “She’s really beautiful,” She breathes, letting Ava take her pinky in her small little fist. Jake thinks the exact same thing about her.It’s not like it’s the first time he pictures a future with Amy - but it is the first time since their marriage that he feels so safe that the image of Amy holding a beaming baby girl with her bright eyes and his curly hair springs to mind so vividly that all Jake can think is, wow.





	

**Author's Note:**

> firstly, to the dear jake/amy tag -- sorry for the endless spam but not to worry, this is likely the last fic for the next couple of weeks while i dedicate myself to more serious projects in this community, as well as like, my final papers
> 
> pro-tip: the soundtrack for this fic is 'The Best Day' by none other than Taylor Swift, i recommend listening to it in the bg for optimum effect

Jake has the thought when he watches her glide her fingers across the cot of baby Ava, before her arms dip in and she’s cautiously cradling the small bundle in her arms, looking torn between distressed and enraptured while Terry hovers nervously behind her. The room is a quiet pastel blue, and Amy’s floral shirt, airy and light matches the smattering of glossy flowers that line the walls around her.

“She’s really beautiful,” She breathes, letting Ava take her pinky in her small little fist. Jake thinks the exact same thing about her.

It’s not like it’s the first time he pictures a future with Amy - but it is the first time since their marriage that he feels so safe that the image of Amy holding a beaming baby girl with her bright eyes and his curly hair springs to mind so vividly that all Jake can think is, _wow_.

When he meets Terry’s gaze, there’s a knowing glint in his eye, and it’s some wonder how Amy is distracted enough by the two-year-old to miss the softened lines in his face, and the thudding in his chest.

**

“Charlotte is a nice name,” He says to Boyle, fingers gliding along the trackpad while he scans the names upon names on babycenter.com. He doesn’t mention that it catches his eye from a recollection of his mother telling him that if he was a girl, she’d have named him Charlotte – or that, secretly, both of them had always wondered what it would have been like to have another girl in the family if they could afford it.

“Yeah but Charlotte Peralta?” Is the reply he gets in the form of Charles’ scrunched up expression, following a contemplative pause on his bite of, whatever pureed disaster he’s decided to ingest that day. “Sounds a little less dynamite and a little more.. _boring_. You don’t get it Jake, your child can’t just be granted a name of mere _mortals_ when it’ll be carrying _your_ genes. You gotta think bigger than that! Channel your inner deity and bless that child with a name worthy of it’s lineage-”

“Okay – _Hey_ , if I had it my way, I’d name her Hurricane. Or him. It’s a very gender neutral name, and badass either way - totally ticks off the progressive box,” Hurricane Santiago is roughly how he feels about Amy, though that thought isn’t voiced out loud. There is also the fact that so far, Boyle is the only person he’s voiced any baby related thoughts to out loud, and there’s no telling if Amy even wants a child. Like the knowing, older guy Boyle is, he practically rips that thought straight out of Jake’s mindscape.

“So what does she want? Maybe you guys could reach a middle ground. Or mash up the names both of you choose together,” The latter, is ignored but definitely penned down for future reference because it isn’t an entirely abysmal thought but the former—

“I haven’t exactly– Um- talked to her. About you know. Babies-”

He can feel the gaping stare before he even turns to face it, and there it is, furrowed brows, wide eyes, slightly parted mouth. “Jake!” He squeaks, hands trembling once in mid air. “What? No- you _have_ to talk to her about it! I mean, on one hand this is _great_ because I can guide you on how to have a deeply intimate talk with the love of your life on parenthood and-

“ _Charles_.”

“Right, my point here is that, Amy is the person you should be having this conversation with. Not me. After all, it will be her beautiful womb that will conceive the miracle of life that is _your_ child, oh, I’m almost giddy with the thought of it.”

“Trust me, I’m pretty giddy too,” He pulls a face, but claps a hand on Charles’s shoulder, which he notes, is shaking just a little under his grip, and gives him a lopsided smile of appreciation. “Thanks Charles.”

In response. he receives a double thumbs up and a wide grin.

**

“A baby, huh?” She murmurs pressed into his chest, the hum of the air conditioning the only other noise he can make out in the dark besides her soft breaths, or the gentle rustle of his cotton shirt when she moves her hand to trace patterns into the middle of his ribs.

“Yeah,” He replies, nervousness apparent in the mono-syllable. “I mean- it’s just, you know it’s a thought, and I know you pretty much hate kids, or was it that you suck at them? Okay either way I just think it’s… a consideration,”

She doesn’t still in her movements, still gently tracing out invisible words that he spends the pause guessing at, but she also doesn’t say anything. Until, she does.

“Okay, firstly, I don’t _suck at kids_ ,” He hears the pout and it’s enough to make him grin, even without seeing it. “I mean, I’m not the best at them, and they actually kind of intimidate me but that’s always because I feel like I can’t mess up if they belong to someone else. Not that, it’s okay to mess up if they’re mine!” She pauses again to take a breath, “What I’m trying to say is, I don’t know what other people expect of me when I’m handling their children, and you know me, I have to make sure I do it right, and I do it well. But if it’s my own child, I can move at my own pace,”

“So…” He thinks over everything she just said before, he turns, sidling a little lower to make out her face under the small streak of moonlight peeking through their curtains. “Is that a.. maybe?”

“I mean, I’m still.. terrified of being a bad mother, or just- so many things but, those were all thoughts I had before you so…” Her teeth furrow into her lower lip and a smile tugs at the corners of her mouth. “It’s more than just a maybe.”

**

The baby comes after three home pregnancy tests and one visit to the doctor. Of course, she does it all in total secrecy in order to surprise him when he comes home to her practically _glowing_ with her hands clasped together at the dining table.

“You look happy, what happened? Holt tell you that your new filing system is really taking the precinct to new places?”

She considers that, mouth falling open before it shuts. “No - though, it is, even if he hasn’t said it, but…” There’s a deep breath, her grin all pearly white teeth and crinkling in her eyes stopping his brain for a second. “I’m pregnant.”

After they stew in the news for half an hour (Jake straight up cries, and then adamantly denies it after Amy sits there patting his back even though she’s the one with the baby in her), they whip out the _First Trimester_ binder she made in preparation of it, and he’s never been so happy to have a reason to go through one of her Santiago Style folders.

A week later, Terry comes by with Sharon to congratulate them in the form of a casserole and some cider, and the whole squad comes along with them. Charles cries even harder than Jake does, Gina states that she’s the Godmother right away, and Rosa gives them a small smile, followed by a low “Nice.”

But the real kicker is Captain Holt silently raising his glass in a toast, before calmly saying “Your child is lucky, to have both of you as parents.”

Amy cries harder than Charles and Jake combined.

**

For someone who has a step-by-step rulebook the size of the dictionary, Amy has a hard time following the most fundamental rule - that being, tearing herself away from field work. The Captain passes her cases that are less strenuous, more desk-oriented, and generally more safe until she picks up on how Jake is going out more and more for major cases while she’s busy typing up a report for missing pets and stolen bicycles.

“We’re _partners_ ,” She says when she presses the issue a cup of tea in hand while Jake works the coffee machine. “It’s not fair that you’re taking up the brunt of the work while I do fluff cases.”

“Uh yeah, it is fair because I’m not the one who has a human being growing inside of me,” He gives her a pointed look before taking a cautious sip. “And besides, you love paperwork! You still get all the perks of being a cop, just, without the potential of killing our child!”

“I’m careful enough to make sure that doesn’t happen! You _know_ that,” There’s a small click from her chunky heel clomping once against the tiled ground to punctuate her irritation.

“Amy,” He sets the cup down because it’s too hot anyway and he learnt that when he burnt the tip of his tongue. Instead, his hands rest on either side of her, pressing small circles into her upper arms. “I trust you, but as your partner, it’s also my responsibility to make sure you stay safe when you’re vulnerable. And I’m pretty sure that’s my responsibility as a parent now, too, so just.. can you trust that this is best for now? It won’t be forever, I promise, just, until you’re not in a position where you can hurt yourself in more ways than one.”

Whether it’s the sincerity in his tone, or the softening in his eyes, something about that gets her to concede because she relaxes underneath his touch and gives him a reluctant nod. “Okay,” She says, stepping into him to wrap her arms around him. “I trust you.”

**

In the second trimester, they clear out the small guest room and begin cleaning it up until it looks brand new. They buy a cot together and they hang the small police-themed mobile Terry gave them at the baby shower above it. Jake wears one of his old singlets from Florida and some beach shorts and Amy glides around like some ethereal being in one of her maternity dresses, which float around her and make her every movement seem more fluid, and in their breaks, he pads off to the kitchen to bring orange juice over.

When she disappears to take a nap, he paints the walls with ducklings and tulips and blu-tacks glow in the dark stars to the ceiling thinking of all the picture books his mother used to read to him when it was just the two of them.

He joins her a little later, dabs of paint still dotted here and there across his cheeks, his hands, his nose.

When they wake, he watches her stretch out on the floral yoga mat she keeps against the door, wondering how on Earth he got lucky enough to be married to this woman, the mother of his child. She doesn’t question the way he moves behind her, legs bracketing her hips from behind while he presses tender kisses to every inch of her shoulders, breathing “I love you,” over and over again against her skin.

**

It’s a girl. It’s a baby girl and really it makes no difference because their baby could’ve been anything and he still would’ve been over the moon but it’s a small baby girl with her legs tucked in and her fists curled that hits him with the reality that he’s now a father to a small, _baby girl_.

They stick up the ultrasound pictures in their bedroom and Jake comments on how it kind of looks like she’s cocking a gun, making analyzations of her pose and the hunch of her shoulders. Amy indulges him for the most part and they stay there making comments on her for a while until Jake’s stomach gurgles and they retreat to the kitchen.

When the plates are washed and Amy is toweling at her damp hair, smelling like fruits and flowers with Taylor Swift playing softly in the background, Jake kisses his way down to her belly and blows a raspberry into her belly button, reveling in the way her laughter shakes through her body.

“Hey there, Junior,” He says stroking a hand along the side of the bump. “I know it must be real gross in there but when you come out, all covered in blood, and other nasty womb stuff, screaming your lungs out, you’re gonna be so glad it was Amy Santiago that you were coming out of.”

“Remind me why I thought you’d be a good dad again?” Amy says, from somewhere above him. He elects to ignore it.

“Because your mum is going to teach you all the ways women can be strong too, and she’ll probably show you how to perfectly tie your hair back into a ponytail and dislocate someone’s elbow because that’s how cool and amazing she is, and you’re so lucky to have her. Almost as lucky as I am,” He presses ginger kisses in a succession of thirds before he continues. “And you’re also pretty lucky to have me as your dad because your nursery looks bangin’ and my brains in combination with Amy’s is going to make you some sort of child prodigy that will outshine Terry’s kids any day.”

Amy’s tinkling laughter starts up again and says. “I’m pretty lucky to have your dad here too,” Her fingers lace through the hand he has pressed to her tummy. “Otherwise you wouldn’t have been made to be the child to the best and second best detectives of all time.”

 _‘And Daddy’s smart,’_ Taylor chimes in, at the most opportune moment.

“Just to be clear,” He whisper-shouts. “I’m the best here.”

_‘And you’re the prettiest lady in the whole wide world,’_

**

Jake freaks out more on the drive to the hospital than Amy does, both because his pregnant wife is about to give birth to their child and also because said pregnant wife is still screaming at him to maintain the speed limit whilst groaning every now and then.

Charles shows up about ten minutes later - which is honestly pretty impressive given that Jake had barely informed him twenty minutes prior - pacing about and mostly saying _‘Oh my God this is happening, all my dreams are coming true,’_ under his breath again and again, and Gina shows up shortly after with pom poms and a banner that has ‘YOU CAN BIRTH IT!’ written out in hot pink glitter glue.

They spend the next few hours rotating between the hospital cafeteria, moving to the bakery down the street because there’s a unanimous consensus that hospital food is disgusting, and sitting with Amy through labour. Jake tries to stay with her as much as possible, until Holt forces him to eat something that isn’t packaged sugar and give Amy some rest, while he sits with her in what is mostly silence, giving her an occasional encouraging remark, which is enough to burst her heart.

It’s the birthing bit that makes _his_ heart feel like it might explode. Her hair is a total mess, matted to her forehead with sweat and he’s never seen her so red before and there are a million and one scenarios in his mind where this ends up horribly but all he can do is whisper reassuring comments to her while her nails dig crescents into his palms.

Honestly, it feels like it lasts an entire lifetime, and he’s not the least bit surprised that Amy fights her way through it, voice hoarse and teeth grit until there’s a small cry, all high pitched and delicate. The world stops on its axis.

**

She’s so small, and so fragile and so theirs. Her nose is Amy’s and she has his hair and she’s barely the weight of a sack of potatoes and theirs. “Say hi to the one who, in the immortal words of your Godmother Gina Linetti, did indeed birth it.”

Amy looks so tired and worn beyond anything he’s ever seen before, but most of all she looks radiant. When her arms curl around curl around the bundle of blankets he’s taken back to her, with Ava in her arms and the soft expression across her features, except the feeling he has now is that multiplied by five, and then some.

“Hi there, baby,” She whispers, tentatively reaching a hand out to cup her cheek, to which in response, she gets one tiny hand wrapped around her index finger. “You’re so beautiful, aren’t you?”

“She gets it from you,” Jake whispers, shoulder nudging gently against Amy’s. “Just like that nose. Also, I felt her kicking when she was still inside, so that’s from you too.”

Amy’s laugh is so breathless and even in the bed beside her he feels so weak at the sound of it. “But she has your hair. That’s going to be a nightmare to put in a ponytail,” She whispers back in faux-accusation, her free hand stroking along the scalp where the small dark curls protrude. There’s a comfortable silence that blankets them while they both fawn over this creation of theirs, this wonderful gift of life as Charles put it so many months back before she murmurs.

“We did it, Jake,” She turns to face him and there’s a glassiness to the rims of her eyes. “We did it. We’re parents.”

He laughs once, a little wet because he’s beginning to tear up himself and leans in to kiss her, whispering against her lips, “Yeah we did it, Ames. We’re champions. We won the baby lottery because she’s.. she’s _amazing_.”

**

Holt comes in a half hour later, even though it’s one in the morning and it’s one of those rare times he actually cracks a smile. “Congratulations, Detectives,” He says, his cool baritone warm in a special sort of way. “She’s… she’s just lovely,”

“Yeah,” Amy agrees, eyes fluttering shut in relief. “Isn’t she?”

“We have that song on the baby mixtape I made,” Jake supplies with a small yawn, head still tucked into the crook of Amy’s neck. “Charles recommended it.”

“He’ll be in here after me, if you two aren’t too tired,” Holt adds, moving a little closer to the bed, hands still clasped behind his back. Kevin’s alongside him, looking fondly at the small child cradled in Amy and Jake’s hold. “He… made sure to very clearly affirm that place in line.”

“Don’t doubt it,” Jake adds. And then, when he looks up at the way the two of them are looking at the gift that is his _daughter_ , he says, “Do you want to hold her?”

He’s not entirely sure how to interpret Holt’s response, because again it’s one in the morning, and childbirth is pretty exhausting, but he gets the answer soon enough in the form of Holt’s hesitant movement. “Could I?”

Amy carefully pushes her weight up by the elbows, holding her out by a couple of inches until he’s got her in his own grip, very carefully rocking her to a silent rhythm. “She has your nose, Amy.”

It’s the first time he’s addressed her by her first name, and Jake resists the urge to congratulate her for not passing out on the spot. “Yeah,” She agrees, her voice pitchy. “And Jake’s hair.”

He nods at that, Kevin letting out an affectionate sigh at the sight of his husband with a baby in tow. “What’s her name?”

There’s a look shared between Jake and Amy before he breathes out, “Charlotte. Her name’s Charlotte.”

**Author's Note:**

> secondly -- if you do want to see more one shots, I will still accept and post prompts up on my tumblr (jakeperolta) and you can find my works there in the meantime!
> 
> and lastly, thank you once again to jormaperalta for beta'ing this fic, it would definitely be more of a mess without your help


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